Various types of alarm clocks have, over the years, found their ways into many households and institutions. Typically, all alarm clocks have an alarm set mechanism, and controls for silencing the alarm after it has been activated. Once awakened, the sleepy person using the alarm clock struggles with some difficulty to find the shut-off button or mechanism to turn off the alarm.
A relatively recent patent, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,875 issued on Aug. 26, 1980 to Michael L. Rothman, describes an alarm clock in which the alarm is demountably attached to the clock. When the alarm is activated, it is removed from the clock and thrown against a wall in order to arrest the audible signal. The alarm mechanism includes an impact-sensitive switch which deenergizes a signal storage means. This is accomplished when, upon impact with the wall, the impact-sensitive switch is closed thereby deactivating the audio signal to quiet the alarm.
More recently, a "novelty alarm clock" has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,505,597 which issued on Mar. 19, 1985 to Jack L. Finn. This patent describes an alarm clock which is encased within a foam or a spongy body member defining a casing and shaped to resemble a basketball, a football or like objects. A trigger means disposed wholly within the casing is connected to an external push-button alarm shut off, and the casing is manipulable to permit pushing or pulling the push-button shut off. When the alarm is activated, the clock is thrown against a wall, and the impact on the external push button triggers the trigger means 113 which is disposed within the casing and closes the circuit, thus silencing the alarm.
In the alarm clock described by Finn, the clock is not externally visible without removing the plug 103 from the cavity 107. Moreover, the impact on the rigid surface 105a of the trigger assembly must be sufficient to bias the activating plate 111 against the trigger means 113 to quiet the audio signal. Thus, the alarm clock disclosed in Finn is not always reliable and it may become necessary for the person to get out of bed to shut off the alarm.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an alarm clock which overcomes the disadvantages of the alarm clocks described in the aforementioned patents of Rothman and Finn.
It is also an oject of this invention to provide an alarm clock in the form of a sports ball such as a baseball, football, basketball and like objects which, when the alarm sounds, is thrown against the wall, or on a floor, in order to silence the alarm.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an alarm clock ball with a "snooze" type of alarm which will produce an audible buzz sound and, when the ball is thrown against the wall, will shut off the audio buzz sound until a predetermined time period has elapsed, at which time the audio buzz sound will automatically recommence.
It is another object of this invention to provide such a sports ball alarm clock which is of sufficient strength and resiliency so that neither the ball itself nor its internal alarm clock mechanism is damaged by the impact of the ball against the wall.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide such alarm clocks in which the time display is externally visible to the user and in which the buttons controlling the various functions of the clock are readily accessible to the user without removal of the cover or other protective device.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide such an alarm clock ball which may be used repeatedly without damage to its clock assembly or its snooze alarm mechanism.
The foregoing and other objects and features of this invention will be more fully appreciated from the ensuing description and the accompanying drawings.